If you are using an old laptop or PC, you may notice that your device takes too much time to open up windows explorer or installed applications. If you have used another system, you may quickly notice the difference or lag in handling various commands. It makes take a longer time to open up graphical applications or if you are editing or converting video. As the system gets old, it is a great chance to fill the device with junk files.
There are several reasons behind the sluggish nature of your laptop. Your system tray may have filled with too many programs. A lot of programs automatically setup themselves to start with your device, there may be tons of unwanted programs that you are installed from time to time, and there are certain programs that eat up the resources that you never use! As the time passes your disk may fill with a lot of junk files or duplicate files. Here are some easy ways to clean up and speed up your laptop.
Uninstall Unused Software programs
This is the first step you should do. Check the programs installed and the space eaten up by the program and the remaining space available in your OS drive (normally C drive). You can uninstall unused or unwanted programs from Control panel>Uninstall a program>Select the program>Uninstall/change. Before uninstalling check whether the program is a required one or not. You may note down the serial number of any purchased software before uninstalling the software to reinstall it later.
Close Programs in system Tray
Sometimes too many programs may be started with Windows and stay running in the background. Sometimes, some applications may not be closed when clicking the close button, it may be in the system tray to monitor the activity to provide better results. For example, if you used a system cleanup tool to clean up your system and you closed the application after the cleanup, but it may not be closed completely, it may reside in your system tray to track your computer performance to inform you about the time for next clean up! It may be a part of that program to support its users and there may be some options to disable it in the Settings or Preference tab of the apps. But most users don’t know such a feature exists in their program. You can see the programs in the taskbar by clicking the upward arrow toward the right side of the taskbar in Windows.
Disable Startup programs
There are a number of programs startup automatically with your Windows OS. If you are installed an Antivirus or a Download manager tool it may automatically startup with your system. The antivirus requires the automatic startup to detect and delete the virus as it enters into your system. The download managers require the automatic startup to detect the links of downloadable files and objects. Some software installs their automatic update feature in startup to monitor and update their software regularly. You can access the Task Manager by right-clicking on the taskbar (the black horizontal bar seen at the bottom of your desktop) and select Task manager in the popup menu (you can also use the shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-Escape). Initially, the tabs are at Processes, click Startup to see the startup programs. To disable a program, select the program that you want to block from startup, right-click on the program, in the popup menu select Disable. You can also see the Startup impact of the program in the Startup tab.
Update your Operating System
Nowadays, all OS has its own update program to automatically check and update the Operating system and the drivers installed on the system. To update Windows go to Start>Settings (gear icon) > Update&Security > Windows Update. Your operating system, drivers and apps are automatically updated to the latest version.
Detect the resource-hungry programs
You can find the resource-hungry programs from the Task Manager. In Processes, you can see the CPU and memory power used by the program, you can also see the utilization of the physical drive. To end a program right-click the application and click End task.
Update the Hardware
It becomes a little costly, but more effective. You can add an SSD hard disk instead of your old HDD hard disk. For a normal user, a 120GB SSD is enough, if you are planning to install some heavy application, get a 240Gb SSD. If you are a gamer you may need more space to install the entire game! I tested it on my laptop and it boots up faster like my smartphone! It’s not a waste of money, really worth it. Next, you have to check the amount of free RAM available, if you have too little memory to run applications, you need to think of your RAM upgrade.
